(Sergei Chirikov/Pool photo via AP). Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a news conference after meeting with his staff at the campaign headquarters in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 18, 2018. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dodged a q...

(AP Photo/Matt Dunham, file). FILE - In this Wednesday, March 14, 2018 file photo, police work at the scene outside a house in New Malden, south west London, which has been sealed-off after Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov was found dead. British p...

British police say no sign of forced entry has been found in the murder investigation of a London-based Russian businessman who died from compression to the neck.More >>

British police say no sign of forced entry has been found in the murder investigation of a London-based Russian businessman who died from compression to the neck.More >>

(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin). A person holds a banner of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Manezhnaya square, near Kremlin in Moscow, Sunday, March 18, 2018. An exit poll suggests that Vladimir Putin has handily won a fourth term as Russia's president, ...

The election victory by President Vladimir Putin gives him a stronger hold on Russia and a stronger place in the world.More >>

The election victory by President Vladimir Putin gives him a stronger hold on Russia and a stronger place in the world.More >>

(Virginia Mayo). European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, right, shakes hands with British Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis prior to a meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels on Monday, March 19, 2018.

Negotiators from the European Union and Britain hailed on Monday major progress in Brexit talks, but conceded that there had been no breakthrough on keeping open the Irish border.More >>

Negotiators from the European Union and Britain hailed on Monday major progress in Brexit talks, but conceded that there had been no breakthrough on keeping open the Irish border.More >>

(AP Photo/Jennifer Kay). Six crosses are placed at a makeshift memorial on the Florida International University campus in Miami on Saturday, March 17, 2018, near the scene of a pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at least six people on March 15.

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.More >>

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.More >>

Authorities said Friday that the cables suspending a pedestrian bridge were being tightened after a "stress test" when the 950-ton concrete span collapsed over traffic, killing at least six people and injuring 10

Authorities said Friday that the cables suspending a pedestrian bridge were being tightened after a "stress test" when the 950-ton concrete span collapsed over traffic, killing at least six people and injuring 10

As teachers in West Virginia noisily celebrated a 5 percent raise that ended their nine-day walkout, momentum was building elsewhere for similar protests over pay and benefits for the nation's public school teachers.

Teachers in Oklahoma and Arizona are contemplating actions of their own amid growing frustration over meager pay. Teachers and staff in eight Kentucky school districts were planning "walk in" rallies Thursday to protest proposed cuts to their retirement benefits. Teachers in Pittsburgh reached a tentative agreement after threatening a strike, and hundreds of educators held demonstrations this week in Jersey City, New Jersey.

The unions' victory in the West Virginia strike has given a boost to organizers who say the national spotlight on teacher pay is long overdue.

"To be able to do that there? I think people in Arizona started looking at each other saying, 'Wow!'" said Noah Karvelis, an art teacher in Phoenix who helped launch a campaign urging Arizona teachers to wear red Wednesday as a show of solidarity. The demonstration was meant to gauge interest in stronger action by teachers, who received a 1 percent pay increase this year, Karvelis said.

From West Virginia, which has some of the nation's lowest teacher salaries, unions heard familiar stories of educators struggling to get by. The teachers behind the walkout that shuttered public schools statewide said the 2 percent pay raise initially proposed would not have covered their rising health insurance costs.

Some of the teachers who returned to classrooms on Wednesday said they hope unions around the country will be encouraged by what they accomplished.

"I do think this strike can be the start of something big nationally," said Melinda Monks, a special education teacher at Bridgeview Elementary in South Charleston, West Virginia. "Because the United States, as Gov. (Jim) Justice says, has fallen behind in education, behind some of our other nations, and I think it's time that teachers step forward and demand a more central role in education and more respect for our profession."

Teacher unrest around the United States has grown as strong health care and retirement benefits, viewed in the late 1980s and 1990s as a tradeoff to slower pay growth, have begun to erode at district or state levels, said Becky Pringle, vice president of the National Educators Association.

"They're really feeling it now and they're leaving all of their options open in terms of what kinds of actions they are ready to take," she said.

The daily demonstrations and legislative back and forth were closely watched from Oklahoma, where teachers union President Alicia Priest said large numbers of teachers are leaving the profession and state because of funding cuts and compensation that lags behind surrounding states by $5,000 to $20,000. The union there is pushing for pay raises of $10,000 over three years.

"It certainly does embolden us," Priest said.

Nationally, the average teacher's salary was $58,950 in 2017, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than $10,000 above what teachers earn in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona.

Tom Ramming, an educational policy professor at the University at Buffalo, attributed much of West Virginia's impact to its statewide scope, whereas in many other states contracts are settled at the district or county level.

In the past, teachers strikes have tended to come in waves, said Georgetown University history professor Joseph McCartin. After World War II, there were about 60 strikes from 1945 to 1950. The pattern repeated in the 1970s, when teachers hurt by inflation were motivated by the civil rights and feminist movements to take action, he said.

"Success of teachers in one location tends to encourage teachers in other locations," McCartin said.

In Kentucky, where Republican lawmakers have proposed cuts to retirement benefits, hundreds of public school teachers packed a legislative hearing Wednesday, chanting "Vote them out!" after a committee advanced the bill to the Senate floor.

Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, said he hopes their efforts will stop the bill. Asked about a strike, McKim said: "Anything is possible."

Teachers at 28 schools in Kentucky were planning to gather outside of their buildings Thursday and walk in together.

Jersey City teachers, whose contract has expired, are still at the bargaining table but have approved striking if necessary, said Education Association President Ron Greco.

"I think it's certainly helping our cause," he said of the West Virginia strike.

Pittsburgh teachers reached a tentative agreement while West Virginia teachers were out on strike. Although the timing - after 19 months of negotiations - was coincidental, union President Nina Esposito-Visgitis praised the West Virginia teachers for getting people to pay attention to how teachers are compensated.

"Public education has to be a No. 1 issue on everybody's mind," said Esposito-Visgitis, whose members will vote on the agreement by March 19, "whether you have kids in the school right now or not."

(AP Photo/Jennifer Kay). Six crosses are placed at a makeshift memorial on the Florida International University campus in Miami on Saturday, March 17, 2018, near the scene of a pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at least six people on March 15.

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.More >>

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.More >>

(Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). FBI agents work the scene of an explosion in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 18, 2018. At least a few people were injured in another explosion in Texas' capital late Sunday, after three package bombs detonat...

At least two people injured in another explosion in Texas' capital after three package bombs that detonated earlier this month in other parts of the city killed two people and injuring two others.More >>

At least two people injured in another explosion in Texas' capital after three package bombs that detonated earlier this month in other parts of the city killed two people and injuring two others.More >>

(Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). FBI agents meet at the scene of an explosion in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 18, 2018. At least a few people were injured in another explosion in Texas' capital late Sunday, after three package bombs deto...

Police have warned residents near the site of the latest explosion in Austin to remain indoors and to call 911 if they need to leave home before 10 a.m.More >>

Police have warned residents near the site of the latest explosion in Austin to remain indoors and to call 911 if they need to leave home before 10 a.m.More >>

(Joe Ahlquist/The Rochester Post-Bulletin via AP). Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a fatal stabbing Saturday, March 17, 2018, at the Salvation Army Castleview Residence in downtown Rochester, Minn. Police have arrested a man in the multiple...

Police have arrested a man in the fatal stabbing of two men at a Salvation Army apartment building in downtown Rochester, Minnesota.More >>

Police have arrested a man in the fatal stabbing of two men at a Salvation Army apartment building in downtown Rochester, Minnesota.More >>

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File). FILE - This Monday, June 19, 2017, file photo shows a user signing in to Facebook on an iPad, in North Andover, Mass. Facebook has a problem it just can’t kick: People keep exploiting it in ways that could sway election...

(Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool, File). FILE - In a Wednesday, March 14, 2018 file photo, Nikolas Cruz is lead out of the courtroom after an arraignment hearing at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Cruz is...

Documents show some officials were so concerned about the mental stability of Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in last month's school shooting rampage in Florida, that they had recommended he be forcibly committed.More >>

Documents show some officials were so concerned about the mental stability of Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in last month's school shooting rampage in Florida, that they had recommended he be forcibly committed.More >>